Kevin Sampson created Picture Lock in February 2013 and is the show’s producer and host. He has a B.A. in Media Arts from the University of South Carolina and an M.F.A. in Film and Electronic Media from American University in Washington D.C. He is also a member of the Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association and African American Film Critics Association.

Justin is best known for writing and directing the internationally known “Ninjas vs Zombies”, ”Ninjas Vs Vampires”, and “Ninjas vs Monsters”, films as well as for creating and co-hosting the popular TREKOFF podcast. Justin has been active in DMV indie film production since 2001, having starred in and composed the score for “Crawler” and “Dead Hunt”, the final two films from microbudget icon Don Dohler. Justin is currently finishing post-production on the TREKOFF feature film in which he also stars and which he co-directed. He has also appeared as a leading actor on stage all over the DMV in shows such as Macbeth, Rocky Horror, Romeo and Juliet, The Tempest, and A Christmas Story. Justin’s songs “Presidentialized”, ”We are Nerds”, and “Gethsemane” have enjoyed critical success and nationalradio play. More information on Justin’s current projects can be found at trekoffpodcast.com and ninjasvs.com.

Morgan Hungerford West is an artist and creative consultant in Washington, DC. Using hands-on visuals to create online content, culture, and experience, her clients span the food, fashion, and lifestyle realms. Founder of Panda Head Blog and A Creative DC, her personal projects focus on representing all aspects of creative lifestyle in the District, and making DC’s creative communities visible and accessible to each other, to the rest of the city, and to the nation at large. She works from her studio in the Brookland neighborhood of NE DC, Wild Hand Workspace, and is co-founder of Topaz + Arrow, a bi-monthly DIY workshop series.

Catherine Carnovale is a Development Executive at Sullivan Entertainment, who is a major distributor in the world television industry with penetration into major markers and relationships with principal US, Canadian and foreign broadcasters.

Kelli M. Anderson is an interactive media strategist, digital media artist, and arts educator in the Washington, DC metro area providing consulting through her interactive media company Sojournals. Kelli provides social media strategy and educational outreach for the Smithsonian Latino Virtual Museum(LVM), co-curating the Smithsonian LVM interactive Tumblr blog, “a cross-platform immersive education initiative based on bilingual mixed media experiences.” She also teaches new media at Duke Ellington School of the Arts within its Literary Media & Communications department, with a focus on immersive storytelling and interactive media.

Clint Gaige has been writing and producing video for over 25 years. As co-owner of Growth Media Services he has produced corporate videos, training videos and commercials for business organizations and government agencies. He is also a successful writer, with four novels and numerous short stories to his credit. His work has appeared in Futures and Bullet Magazine, and he was nominated twice for a Pushcart Prize. His film work includes the short films Dogmatic Siblings, Brothers and Perspective, the feature length film Violent Karma and the educational series Classroom Moments. He is the head writer and executive producer of the fantasy-noir Shotgun Mythos.

Billie Krishawn is an actress and poet based in the DMV area. She is an alum of Duke Ellington School of the Arts and recent graduate of Drew University's Theatre program. A few of her credits include the roles of Brianna in Otessa Ghadar's web series: "Orange Juice in Bishop's Garden"; Joe in Nina Young's short film: "One Night Stand," and Belhat in Flying Ship Production's touring children's musical: "Fire on the Mountain."

Kelli M. Anderson is an interactive media strategist, digital media artist, and arts educator in the Washington, DC metro area providing consulting through her interactive media company Sojournals. Kelli provides social media strategy and educational outreach for the Smithsonian Latino Virtual Museum(LVM), co-curating the Smithsonian LVM interactive Tumblr blog, “a cross-platform immersive education initiative based on bilingual mixed media experiences.” She also teaches new media at Duke Ellington School of the Arts within its Literary Media & Communications department, with a focus on immersive storytelling and interactive media.

A native New Yorker, Richard is continually active in stage, film, television and commercial projects. He is a screenwriter and produced playwright, as well as a feature film producer and web series executive producer. He began acting on stage in classics such as The Alchemist by Ben Jonson and Tom Jones at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center.

Stephani DeLuca is a freelance television and film producer based in New York City. She he has worked on projects for Warner Bros. Television, Sony, and Disney. Stephani’s previous roles include Coordinating Producer of Gossip Girl and Assistant Producer Coordinator of The Amazing Spider-Man 2.

Justin is the Director and Co-Creator of the documentary project, startupland, which raise $85k on Kickstarter and named the most anticipated documentary for entrepreneurs by Inc. He is currently helping companies tell their stories and developing a new narrative series called Staffers.

Sarah Hirsch is one of the lead actresses in the longest running web series Orange Juice in Bishops Garden. She’s also a recent graduate of Duke Ellington School of the Arts, specializing in Theatre and Literary Media.

Morgan Hungerford West is an artist and creative consultant in Washington, DC. Using hands-on visuals to create online content, culture, and experience, her clients span the food, fashion, and lifestyle realms. Founder of Panda Head Blog and A Creative DC, her personal projects focus on representing all aspects of creative lifestyle in the District, and making DC’s creative communities visible and accessible to each other, to the rest of the city, and to the nation at large. She works from her studio in the Brookland neighborhood of NE DC, Wild Hand Workspace, and is co-founder of Topaz + Arrow, a bi-monthly DIY workshop series. Her work and imagery have been featured by Design*Sponge, American Express, The Washington Post, Food52, GOOD Magazine, Need Supply, West Elm, and Nylon Magazine, amongst other outlets and platforms.

The fact that Kevin Sampson is not just a film critic, but a writer, producer, and director as well makes his understanding of cinema even better. Coming from a theoretical and hands on approach, he understands both sides of the struggle of viewing and creating great works. After receiving an MFA in Film & Electronic Media graduate from American University in Washington, D.C in 2011 Kevin took his love for film to the next level by creating and producing Picture Lock, an entertainment website, podcast, and hour long film review TV show that runs on Arlington Independent Media’s public access station in Arlington, VA. The show covers new releases, classic films, film festivals and interviews with local filmmakers in the DMV area. He is also a member of both the Washington DC Area and African American Film Critics Associations.

Erica is a creative consultant, marketing strategist & events producer with a background in journalism. She helps clients integrate social media into their business and marketing plans as a Creative Strategist for Huge, a full-service digital agency. Outside of her full-time job, she is the co-founder of Media Rise, a startup nonprofit that connects people and ideas to promote meaningful media through an annual festival, city meetups and other special projects.

Bryan Thompson is a seasoned international business executive and the founder of the Miami Web Fest. Prior to his involvement with the TV/film industry, Bryan worked as an international account executive for various firms before joining the Army in 2003. Bryan began his film production career as a military consultant and actor on independent film sets. From there he went on to produce several films, including the bilingual film “Noventa” and a web series which is currently in development. He founded the festival in 2003 after identifying a need for better opportunities for promoting web series creators to network with industry executives and collaborators.

Jennifer “Jelly” Crawford is the co-host and producer of The JellyVision Show Podcast and Founder of DC PodFest. She is also a creative entrepreneur and the SHE.E.O ofSocial Media Rescue, a company that provides social media marketing heroics to small business.

Alexander Reben is a kinetic engineer and interactive artist designing robots and novel interfaces to experimentally explore humankind’s evolving relationship with technology. His work has been shown at Ars Electronica, MIT, Axiom, EYEBEAM, and The Whitney Biennial. Following his MIT thesis “Boxie,” he was invited to speak at TED and other international venues. Reben’s recent interactive installation, Robots-in-Residence: The World’s First Documentary Shot And Directed Entirely By Robots, premiered at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam’s Doclab and showcased at the 2013 Tribeca International Film Festival’s Storyscapes Competition.

New Zealand-born Justine is risk specialist with background in vulnerability research, IT management, and classical ballet. Since 2013 she has been employed by Dow Jones, where she heads Cyber Security and Special Projects. In this role Justine is responsible for global Information Security as she helps evolve the Dow Jones’ product lines, including Factiva and the Wall Street Journal. In previous roles Justine was CEO of Immunity, Inc, a consultant and researcher with Internet Security Systems (now IBM) X-Force, and New Zealand’s Government Communications Security Bureau. She was also a professional dancer with the Royal New Zealand Ballet Company. Justine is based in New York City and Miami.

Gregg Deal is a husband, a father, an artist and a member of the Paiute Tribe of Pyramid Lake. As a provocative contemporary artist/activist and 15 year resident of the DC metro area, much of Gregg’s work deals with indigenous identity and pop-culture, touching on issues of race relations, historical consideration and stereotype. This is especially true with Gregg’s latest performance piece, The Last American Indian On Earth, a work that exploits the stereotypes that exist in American culture while challenging the viewer’s considerations of the indigenous as both contemporary and relic. Within this work, as well as his paintings and mural work, Gregg advances issues within Indian country such as decolonization, the mascot issue (local and across the US) and appropriation all while using tools available through social media, film/video and beyond. Within the context of such heavy subject matter, Gregg speaks intelligently to these issues, brings a sharp wit, and is keenly aware of his place as an indigenous man and a contemporary artist.

Ryan Holladay is an artist and the new media curator at Artisphere where he has worked since it opened in 2010. He is one of three curators of ‘Fermata’, Artisphere’s Spring/Summer show and its first dedicated entirely to sound. Additionally, Ryan works as a sound artist and musician along with his brother and collaborator, Hays Holladay. Together, the two have amassed a body of work that includes sound installations, film scores, mobile apps and interactive concerts and events. Most recently, they’ve gained attention for their location-aware music projects, for which WIRED called them “pioneers”. They have worked with and spoken to a range of companies and institutions such as MTV, Olin and the MIT Media Lab. Ryan is a 2013 TED Fellow, a 2014 Aspen Ideas Scholar and recently served as artist-in-residence at Stanford University’s Experimental Media Art Department.

Dr. Josh McCoy is an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at American University in the Game Lab where he works as a game developer, computer scientist and cross-disciplinary researcher whose focus is on the confluence of game technology, social science, artificial intelligence and design. His goal is to create playable experiences that communicate to broad audiences and critically address the challenges present in our society while expanding the boundaries of technology. The most recent products of his research involve combining artificial intelligence techniques with social science to create meaningful, responsive and socially engaging game experiences. He was a lead on the experimental video game Prom Week, a game that enables a new level of social interaction between characters via an artificial intelligence system that leverages social science to make social behavior playable. This work has been nominated for the Technical Excellence award in the Independent Games Festival and an IndieCade award. Additionally, his research has been used in a DARPA-funded project to enable trainees to engage socially responsive characters with full-bodied interaction for the purpose of teaching good stranger behavior to soldiers in foreign lands.

Elaine McMillion Sheldon is an award-winning documentary film-maker and visual journalist. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, Wired UK, The Atlantic, LA Times, Huffington Post and PBS Mediashift. Sheldon’s feature-length and short films have screened nationally and internationally. Her most recent project, HOLLOW: an interactive documentary, examines the future of rural America through the eyes and voices of Appalachians. HOLLOW has received recognition from the Peabody Awards, World Press Photo, SXSW, International Documentary Festival of Amsterdam and is a 2014 Emmy nominee. In 2013, Filmmaker Magazine named Sheldon one of the 25 New Faces of Independent Film. She works as a freelance filmmaker, editor, producer and media consultant.

Katy Atlas is the founder of SugarLaws.com, a food, fashion, and lifestyle website that showcases posts on Katy’s original recipes,easy, elegant style, beauty, and home decor. As an ex-Manhattanite living in Texas, a new mom to a three-month-old baby boy, and a lawyer, Katy’s blog covers everything from diapers to Dior. Katy is also the author of a three book young adult series, titled Moving Neutral.

Philippa Hughes created the Pink Line Project to inspire creative thinking in everyone, to build community and connectivity, and to open portals to art and culture for the culturally curious. Her vision for DC: to change the way people view DC, both residents and visitors. DC is more than just institutions and politics; it’s filled with amazing people doing amazingly creative things using art, technology, and good-old fashioned ingenuity. Philippa published a weekly subscriber-based email that highlights the best of DC’s creative scene. It’s about cool people doing cool things. Philippa writes about arts and culture in DC and speaks about the power of art and personal choice to transform your life. She established a reputation for creating inventive and collaborative environments in which people who would not normally have the opportunity to interact with each other gather to experience art and culture in alternative and stimulating ways. She has been a leader in the creative and temporary use of vacant, urban space throughout the city.

Adam Slagowski focuses on providing high-quality digital strategy, user experience and design that empower people to interact with some of the most recognized public and private sector organizations. He has successfully helped Huge DC grow and expand a client base that spans media, transportation, financial services, and government within the U.S. and internationally, and has led engagements for several key clients including the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Prior to joining Huge, Adam managed product delivery, sales and operations for several management consulting and technology companies. His list of clients included Capital One, Silicon Graphics, CareFirst, the U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Office of Personnel Management, and the U.S. Department of Labor. Adam has Bachelor’s degrees in Political Science, German and Liberal Arts from Utah State University and is a certified Project Management Professional.

Anthony Anderson was born and raised in the Anacostia neighborhood of Washington, DC, where he expressed his love for entertainment by performing in local talent shows. He ultimately developed a love for acting and writing and not too long after graduating from high school, started his own production company, Southeast Boy Productions. He wrote and produced his first feature film project entitled The Ties That Bind shortly after establishing his production company and the first season of ANACOSTIA quickly followed. Anthony Anderson is the writer, executive producer and lead character in the popular web series, ANACOSTIA. Called “wildly addictive” by Daytimeconfidential.com, ANACOSTIA is a 10 episode dramatic web series that follows the lives of the residents of Anacostia, a small residential community in Washington DC, as they navigate through love, betrayal, deception, sex and murder. Since its debut in 2009, ANACOSTIA has developed a loyal fan following—the show has been downloaded in more than 96 Countries, and has won several industry awards including Indie Series Awards for which ANACOSTIA has been nominated for more Indie Series Awards (25 Nominations and 6 wins) than any other series. Anthony Anderson also holds the record for the most individual Indie Series Award nominations (16 nominations, 3 wins). In September 2011, Anthony Anderson was awarded the African American Filmmaker of The Year by the Historical Black Press, an honor shared with Tyler Perry.

As one of the web series medium’s earliest adopters, Otessa Ghadar started “Orange Juice in Bishop’s Garden” as her MFA thesis at Columbia University’s film school. Now in its 7th season, OJBG is the longest continually running show online. The show has an international following in 145+ countries and has been recognized by industry heavy hitters, such as the Telly Awards, the Webby Awards, LA Web Fest, among others. Otessa is also the founder and president of 20/20 Productions, the digital media firm behind the 2nd Annual DC Web & Digital Media Festival. Additionally, she wrote and published the industry’s first textbook last year, titled The Wild West of Film. Using material published in the book, Otessa currently lectures to top-tier corporations and academic institutions on the state of communication and creation in the digital age.

Kathryn O’Sullivan is the Co-Executive Producer/Creator/Writer/Costume Designer of the Western Web series THURSTON for which she has received numerous nominations and awards for her work. She is also a novelist, playwright, and professor at Northern Virginia Community College. Her debut novel FOAL PLAY (St. Martin’s Press/Minotaur) won the Malice Domestic Best First Traditional Mystery Novel Competition and is the first in the Colleen McCabe series. Other books in the series include MURDER ON THE HOOF and NEIGHING WITH FIRE (2015). Her play MOVING DAY was recently published in “The Best Ten-Minute Plays 2014” (Smith & Kraus) and “Plays of the Dramathon: New Short Plays from DC Playwrights” (The Theatre Lab, 2014). She is a member of the International Academy of Web Television, The Dramatists Guild, Mystery Writers of America, and Sisters in Crime. www.thurton-series.com , www.kathrynosullivan.com

Paul Awad is the Co-Executive Producer/Director/Cinematographer/Editor of the Western Web series THURSTON. His directing and cinematography work on THURSTON has received nominations and/or awards from the International Academy of Web Television, the Telly Awards, and the Indie Series Awards. Paul worked in commercials before turning his focus to narrative projects. His short films “A Ghastly Tale” (3D), “Dracula’s Mother,” “Lot Lizards,” and “Sweet Dreams” have won awards at festivals across the country. His thriller/horror feature “The Fugue” screened at festivals and is currently available on Netflix and Amazon. He has also directed at the American Globe Theatre (Off-Off Broadway), the Page-to-Stage Festival at The Kennedy Center, The Source Theatre, and The Mead Theatre Lab at Flashpoint. He has a Bachelor’s degree in Theatre Arts, a Master’s in Film Production and is on the digital filmmaking and video production faculty of The Art Institute of Washington. www.thurston-series.com